Nelson Police say divers are preparing to search the Kootenay Canal for a motorcyclist who went off the road early Sunday morning.

Police Inspector Henry Paivarinta says a motorcycle carrying two people was turning onto the Blewett Road bridge spanning the canal when it hit a roadside barrier and flipped into the water. The crash took place at approximately 2 a.m., June 13.

"It looks the like the motorcycle was going too fast to negotiate the corner," says Paivarinta.

"The passenger managed to scramble onto shore, but the driver is still missing at this time."

Police have identified the missing man as 29-year-old Joshua Evin from Castlegar. Paivarinta says police are treating the search as a recovery mission, not a rescue.

A preliminary search has already begun at the crash site, and divers will be in the water later this afternoon. To minimize the risk to the dive team, Paivarinta says the Kootenay River Dam downstream will be closed for four to five hours, which will reduce the swiftness of the current in the canal.

Paivarinta says Evins' friends and family are currently at the crash site, and he hopes the team will be able to make a recovery today.

Oh, man. This is bad bad bad. I know Josh - dude's a friend of mine. I had to do a double take when I saw the name of this thread. I used to live in Nelson - first met him like 12 years ago. What the fuck!!!! I can't even believe this shit. I can't believe this is how I'm finding out either. This is so fucked. I don't even know what to say. I know that corner and bridge. FUCK! Everybody likes him - he's a top notch guy. This is terrible.

Thanks, guys. I checked Thrasher yesterday before facebook or my email account so I was completely caught off guard.

I know that he is not that well-know but let me say a couple things to those who aren't familiar. He was from Castlegar, which is in the interior of BC (35 minutes from Nelson, another small town where Quinn Starr and Keegan Sauder are from). I first moved to Nelson in 98, Josh would have been 17 then I think. Regardless, the first thing that stood out to me about his skating was his pop. Crazy float style. Dude ripped tranny, even back then and could seriously pop crazy high off the smallest shit. Powerful skater. Skated for Emerica (in Canada) and was on Premium Wood. He had recently opened up a shop in Castlegar called Black Russian.

Aside from the skate stuff, Josh just flat out ripped as a person. He was always laughing/smiling, always down for anything, had no ego whatsoever, and was just good-natured through and through. I don't think he ever really too got caught up in the whole sponsorship game - as far as kissing ass and trying to get his face everywhere. He just loved skating. I'll say that pretty much any skater between Nelson and Vancouver knows Josh or has seen him skate. And they would all have good things to say about him. That's the kind of guy he was. He was also engaged which makes the news even worse. I'll finish it off by saying this will have affected a lot of people and he is going to very missed by many.

He had a part in Unfazed, a video Premium put out 5 or 6 years ago. You can see what I mean about his skating here:

Truly bad news for the skateboard world. As a skater he was one of a kind. I only ever crossed paths with him a couple times over the years at skate parks and he always remembered me and made a point to say hi. He was so down to earth and a true ripper. My respect and condolences to his family and friends.

Im so glad theres a page for josh, his unfazed part was the most inspirational videopart ive ever seen. it was my motivation during my first years. its horrible that more people dont know about him. only 1 of my friends knew about him only because he was friends with the guy. i met him once when i was road trippin and ive never been so starstrukk, he was such a cool guy. never acted like he was better then anyone else. People like him are what skateboarding needs. not guys who just skate to compete and be the best. RIP josh, even to this day youre still my biggest inspiration! shred on brutha